La Caféothèque de Paris

Located on a side street, near the river Seine, this gem of a coffee-house is not terribly conspicuous unless you were specifically looking for it or happened to walk by and see the red sign out front.

There are two doors to this place, one that is in the picture above which comes into the roasting side, and another around the corner to the right, on the café side. Yes, that’s right, I said there’s a roasting side. I walked into the roasting side and immediately upon entering, I got a snoot full of the deep, rich, almost-but-not-quite burning aroma of roasting coffee beans. The smell filled my lungs and I yearned for more with every breath. One deep smell after another. The rich aroma hypnotized me from within, projecting out from my chest, leading me to the counter looking for the magical beans.

The roaster is next to the front door and there’s a myriad of beans to select from behind the counter. Just past the roasting room, there was another room with a large table in the center that was occupied by books and several people deeply absorbed in something. It looked as though it’s a sommelier class for coffee perhaps? Is there a word for that? Hmmm, a coffee sommelier. Sure, why not. Whatever was going on in that back room, those people looked intense.

Walk up the steps opposite the bean counter and you enter through a couple sitting rooms where people comfortably sit, drink coffee, meet with friends or work their crafts.

Finally, at the other side of the shop, through the sitting rooms there is the café where you can get coffee, quiche, croissants, etc. There’s even table service.

This is a great coffee house with an eclectic mix of music piped through the joint. There’s a myriad of furniture from low, ornate chairs and box tables, to seating pads/couch cushions made from the bulk coffee sacks. Though there is wifi, I was having some trouble with it on my visit. I spotted a few outlets that you could use to charge your phone of power your computer.

All in all, I truly enjoyed this place. It was easy to get to from where I was coming, I took the Metro ‘1’ to Hôtel de Ville and came up and out of the BHV department store. (Oh, and if you’re not from Paris and just visiting like I was and you find yourself in need of supplies, BHV is huge and they have just about anything you’d need. I was able to get a US to Europe power adapter, a travel book on Paris and an English ↔ French phrase book, as well as a few other items I was looking for.)

La Caféothèque is only a few blocks from several train stations and is easy to get to (see below). It’s a great place to sit and relax, meet new friends, get some work done, and enjoy good food and coffee. I had a quiche with salad, espresso, and finally a mocha-chino. All were very good.

Enjoy, and tell them I sent you. They probably won’t know who I am, just tell ’em anyway. 🙂